Teachers’ use of language in multilingual mathematics classrooms during trouble-spots

Abstract

Mathematics teaching in a foreign language may lead to discrimination for some learners specifically during trouble-spots that require the construction of shared-understanding. This research compares teacher-learner interaction in two classrooms of Lebanon where mathematics is taught in a foreign language. Eighteen lessons were recorded and transcribed, and utterances of teacher and learners were coded at the levels of: school; session; interlocutor; language use; move and function. Quantitative analysis of language use and qualitative illustrations of representative sequences are reported. The triadic dialogue as the dominant mode of interaction and the multilingual nature of language were found unique aspects of classroom teacher talk. Differences in the roles of language as a resource for meaning-making were also identified. Findings are discussed within sociocultural and ethnomethodological views of language as a medium to achieve mathematics teaching and learning.